Youth Therapeutic Residence Program Manager in Seaford, Delaware at Children and Families First Delaware Inc

Seaford House Therapeutic Residence is seeking a Program Manager

Lead a therapeutic residence where skilled teams help children and adolescents build safety, stability, and hope.

Seaford House is seeking an experienced, mission-driven Program Manager to lead a therapeutic residential program serving young people with behavioral and emotional needs. This is an opportunity to shape a strong trauma-informed culture, develop talented staff, and bring clinical, residential, educational, medical, and case management services together around each youth.

Reporting to the Chief Program Officer, you will be the program’s primary operational leader—responsible for safety, service quality, staff performance, regulatory readiness, and continuous improvement. The ideal candidate combines sound clinical judgment with hands-on operational leadership and knows how to create a structured, supportive environment in which youth and staff can thrive.

As Program Manager, you will influence the full experience of Seaford House—from the quality of day-to-day care to the strength of the team delivering it.

You will:

• Build and sustain a safe, structured, trauma-informed therapeutic environment.
• Coach and develop program leaders and frontline teams.
• Align clinical and residential practices around individualized youth needs.
• Use data, incident trends, and outcomes to improve quality and reduce risk.
• Strengthen collaboration with families, funders, regulators, schools, courts, providers, and community partners.
• What You’ll Lead
• People and culture: Recruit, supervise, evaluate, coach, and develop Youth Advocate Supervisors, the Clinical Team Leader, and other assigned staff; promote communication, accountability, teamwork, and professional growth.
• Integrated care: Coordinate clinical, residential, educational, medical, recreational, and case management services so that programming is consistent, individualized, and responsive to youth needs.
• Program operations: Oversee daily operations, staffing patterns, scheduling, referrals, admissions, census, utilization, facility needs, resources, and contract performance.
• Safety and crisis leadership: Support staff during crises; review serious incidents, restraints, unauthorized absences, police involvement, contraband concerns, and other significant events; ensure timely documentation, communication, reporting, and follow-up.
• Quality and compliance: Maintain readiness for licensing and accreditation; oversee incident reports, corrective action plans, records, required training, certifications, audits, and regulatory or contractual reporting.
• Performance improvement: Monitor program data, incident trends, youth feedback, engagement, and outcomes; identify opportunities and implement practical improvements that strengthen safety, stability, and service quality.
• Community partnership: Build productive relationships with families, funders, regulators, schools, courts, providers, law enforcement, and other stakeholders.
• Mission support: Participate in agency meetings, committees, court proceedings, and community activities, and step into direct service when needed.

Schedule and Position Requirements

• Residential care requires visible, responsive leadership. This site-based role has a schedule that varies with program needs and may include evenings, weekends, holidays, on-call rotation, and crisis response outside traditional business hours.
• Ability to interpret and apply agency policies, licensing regulations, accreditation standards, contractual requirements, and best practices.
• Completion of required annual training and maintenance of applicable certifications under OCCL requirements.
• Reliable transportation and a valid driver’s license that meets the requirements of the agency’s insurance carrier.
• Commitment to culturally responsive practice, confidentiality, professionalism, quality, and accountability.

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE

• Master's degree in Social Work, Counseling, Psychology, Human Services Administration, Public Administration, or a related field required.
• Clinical licensure preferred.
• Five (5) or more years of experience working with adolescents, child welfare-involved youth, youth with behavioral or emotional challenges, or youth in residential treatment settings preferred.
• Previous supervisory or management experience required. Experience managing residential, behavioral health, child welfare, juvenile justice, or youth-serving programs strongly preferred.

QUALIFICATIONS

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Must have reliable transportation and a valid driver's license that meets the requirements of the agency's insurance carrier.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. The employee is frequently required to stand, walk, use hands to finger, handle, or feel, reach with hands and arms, and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee is occasionally required to sit. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.

Full-time with benefits

Benefits include:

• Health, Dental and Vision Insurance
• 401 (k) Plan with matching
• Vacation, Sick, Personal and Holiday Pay
• Tuition Assistance
• Life Insurance
• Short and Long Term Disability Insurance
• Perks Plus Wellness benefits

EOE